1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a device for gripping and transferring a ring of electrical conductors in the form of pins, used to produce a winding, such as a pin winding, for the stator of a rotating electrical machine; the gripping device is adapted to seize the ring from a first device, such as a ring-forming element, and transfer it to a second element, such as an element to insert the ring in the element holding the winding to be produced.
The invention also concerns a system for producing a winding on a carrying element, such as the stator with a pin winding of a rotating electrical machine, that includes a ring support element which has axial notches in its internal radially cylindrical face and a winding formed by many electrical conductors, each in the form of a pin that has two prongs connected by a head which are mounted in series, the intermediate straight sections of which are placed in two notches that are angularly set off from each other by a predetermined angle, while the head parts generally in the form of a U and the ends of the prongs are wound as a result to obtain from one axial side of the support element a chignon formed by the heads of the pins and from the other side a chignon formed by the free combined ends of the pins; this system is the type that includes a first element to place the pin-shaped conductors in the form of a ring of conductors and to wind the heads of the pins, a device for gripping the ring of conductors with wound pin heads and for transferring this ring to a second device in which this ring is inserted in the winding support element.
2. Background Art
A system for producing a stator with a pin winding and a gripping device to remove and insert the pins, as defined above, is known through patent application WO 92/06527. The gripping device described in this document constitutes an independent transfer device that can be separated from said first and second devices. The disadvantage of this device lies in the fact that it acts on the heads of the pins.
To eliminate this disadvantage, one may consider using an arrangement of the type described in document GB-A-2 047 055 which uses a control device in the form of a case within which is mounted a cup. The case is mounted and movable in relation to the cup and acts on gripping levers. The cup has grooves to allow the passage of the levers, which are mounted with a joint on the cup, to move between a position for gripping the ring and an open position for releasing the ring.
The levers have two arms, one of which is a pivot control arm with a spherical control end installed in a circular groove of the frame and the other has ring-gripping elements at the end. The levers are mounted in such a way as to pivot on a ring element forming the frame, i.e. the cup, through their intermediate section located between the two arms.
Because of the presence of the case groove, there is a risk that the levers will jam.